Foods and beverages: apparatus – Cooking – With material pressing means
Patent
1998-09-03
1999-11-30
Simone, Timothy
Foods and beverages: apparatus
Cooking
With material pressing means
99355, 99384, 99441, 99517, A23L 101, A47J 2720, A22C 700
Patent
active
059923040
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention concerns a unit for the molding and heat treatment of food products, for example for the cooking of hams.
It also concerns a plant comprising a plurality of molding unit of the above type.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Units for the molding of food products, particularly for the cooking of hams, have already been proposed.
A unit of the above kind typically comprises an assembly of molds configured like channels arranged horizontally, side-by-side and parallel to each other, is their bottoms being directed downwards and their openings upwards. The assembly of the molds is fixed to support means which provide for the piling of units on one another.
Applicants' FR-A-2 672 270, relates to a unit of the above kind.
In some embodiments, each channel is attached to a plate that extends under its bottom, forming a double-bottom. The double-bottom plates serve as lid elements adapted to engage in the channel openings of an underlying unit in a pile.
The use of lids is particularly beneficial for cooking hams because the meat is then confined in a well-defined volume in which it is maintained under pressure which eliminates voids and determines its final shape.
Two main techniques have been used until now for the heat treatment of food products, in this instance for the cooking of hams.
The first uses chambers, cells or tunnels for cooking. These are enclosures with dimensions suited to receiving at least one "trolley", this term designating, in the art concerned, an assembly of a plurality of piled molding units movable on a rolling path. The enclosure is generally dimensioned to contain two to twelve trolleys.
Steam is generally diffused into the enclosure to cook the hams.
Plants of the above kind, which require good thermal insulation of the enclosure and use fans for circulating the steam used for cooking, are costly to acquire and to maintain.
There also arises a problem associated with contact between the heat-conveying fluid--steam in this instance--and the products to be treated, namely, a risk of microbial contamination of the products.
The second technique uses cooking tanks or pots of generally parallelepiped shape provided with a lid. The cooking is done in water heated either by means of an auxiliary device such as a boiler or within the tank itself, by heat exchange or by injecting steam.
Tanks of the above kind are not convenient to use because it is necessary to load the cooking units into them from above, for example using a winch or a traveling overhead crane.
Moreover, the contamination problem is also encountered with this method.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to remedy these drawbacks.
To be more precise, a first objective of the invention is to provide a unit for the molding of food products that is itself provided with means for performing heat treatment of the products. This significantly reduces the cost of the operation.
A second objective is to be able to carry out the treatment without any contact between the heat-conveying fluid and the food products, in order to eliminate virtually all risk of contamination.
The invention also aims to achieve the above objective using means that are simple, low in cost and easy to use.
To this end, the applicant has exploited the "dead" space, i.e., the unused space, found in the prior art units between the bottom of a channel and the lid element (double-bottom) under it.
The molding and heat treatment unit of the present invention comprises an assembly of molds configured like channels arranged horizontally, side by side and parallel to each other, their bottoms being directed downwards and their openings upwards, and a lid element extending under the respective bottom being associated with each channel, the assembly of molds being fixed to support means which provide for the piling of units, the lid elements being then engaged in the channel openings of an underlying unit.
The channels and the lid elements are made of a material that is a good conductor of heat.
In ac
REFERENCES:
patent: 1863609 (1932-06-01), Vanderkloot
patent: 2310956 (1943-02-01), Hoy
patent: 3580165 (1971-05-01), Foldenauer
patent: 3796144 (1974-03-01), Foldenauer et al.
patent: 4891237 (1990-01-01), Rabotski
patent: 4957271 (1990-09-01), Summers et al.
Champalaune Jean-Claude
Corveler Yvon
Kaufler S.A.
Simone Timothy
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